Any tips for taking pictures with Canon s400?

[AbsolutWeezer6]

Hey all, I have barley used my Canon s400 with its underwater case becasue I was only going to be in Australia for 4 months and didn't want to risk a flood and not having a camera. However I am leaving now for Fiji, and after not having the camera on my last dive when I got to handle a Olive sea snake and get very close to a stokes sea snake....I am deffinitly bringing the camera down on all the dives I do in Fiji. I was just wondering if anyone has tips on what settings I should use becasue the one time I did use it (when snorkeling in the Whitsundays) I got some very poor results. I attched a couple of the beter pictures to this post ut they still arent very good. But if anyone has any tips on taking beter shots with the Canon s400 let me know becasue I will only have maybe 8 or 10 dives to get as many good pictures as possible.

Cheers
Vinny

 

[Dee]

Sorry, I don't know much about the Canon cameras. Have a great time on your trip!

 

[alcina]

Your Canon should give you great results. The auto mode is OK, but only OK and you will get much better results by using your Manual setting...and it isn't that difficult to get good shots right away.

Start with your ISO on either 64 or 100. Start with f/4 or f/5.6 and 1/100 or 1/125. Take some test shots either while snorkelling - try to shoot against a dark reef and into blue water - or at the very beginning of your dive. Look at the result in the monitor - it will be close to what you will see on your computer when you download. Adjust as necessary (go to 1/160 or 1/250 ish if they are very blown out or change to f/5.6 or 6.3...I usually changed the speed instead of the aperture while diving). For nudibranchs and other small slow moving things, go to f/6.3 or f.7 ish and 1/125 to start...again, you might have to try two or three times but that is the magic of digital!

Get close...test your camera to see how close you can get and still be in focus. My Canon stays in macro mode always unless I am taking pictures of whale sharks or manta rays...even our large turtles are taken on macro. Your internal flash is pretty good - but be aware that you need to be no more than 3 or 4 feet to really get the benefit.

Remember, it is better to underexpose than overexpose - you can fix the underexposures quite well in PhotoShop or similar.

Be careful of dropping your shutter speed below 1/100...blur can be quite noticeable if you aren't really careful.

I love my Canon cameras and I think you'll do great. HTH

 

[alcina]

I got some very poor results. I attched a couple of the beter pictures to this post ut they still arent very good.

You have pretty good colours here, but notice the backgrounds are blurred...and the turtle. Auto mode will do this...go to manual mode and try to stay above 1/100...the Canon's do great.

 

[mtiffee]

I posted a few tips when using my canon s50 in a thread here.. it also shows some pictures taken with the s50.

http://www.scubaboard.com/t59135.html

 

[Cabo]

I've been using the S400/WP-DC800 + Sea&Sea YS-DX25 setup for about a year now and have done 30 or so dives with it. Here are my settings & tips.

+Don't use AUTO - use Manual mode
+White Balance --- either Cloudy or Sunny. Cloudy unless you are very shallow 30' or less and it is bright sun.
+Turn off AIAF.. Basically worthless underwater. It gets confused and it is slightly faster focus lock with it off.
+Center weighted exposure -- just my preference
+flash on 100% of the time
+use the external strobe

+Hold the camera as still as possible. This is the only way to keep the coral/stuff in the background in focus.

You should be able to get pretty good shots. Here's a few links to shots I've taken with the S400. You should be able to do at least this good. I just point-n-click, don't think about it much..

Good luck

http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=400065
http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=356678
http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=321273
http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=317259

 

[cdiver2]

As stated by others get close, try not to shot down but at a slight upwards angle.

 

[AbsolutWeezer6]

Thanks and mtiffee I saw that picture of the turtle you took and I can't belive you got that without an external flash. If I can get anything like that out of my camera I will be extreamly happy. Im really hoping that using it when diving will be alot better then snorkeling becasue its so difficult for me to stay still when I dive down snorkeling. Hopfully I can work out the shutter speed and white balance. Thanks again

Cheers
Vinny

 

[mtiffee]

manual white balence is the key